Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge is now the joint favourite to become the new Doctor Who

After Peter Capaldi steps down as the 12th Doctor this Christmas, his replacement is at this point most likely to be another gawky white guy. However, according to one betting analyst there’s a steadily increasing chance that a woman might be asked step into the role.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, whose inky black sitcom Fleabag traumatised audiences last year, has since Monday seen her odds tumble from 20/1 to 2/1, after she had a few hefty sums of cash dropped on her at the beginning of the week.

Her new odds put her neck and neck with Kris Marshall, once the star of a BT ad campaign, a man who is tall, bashful and totally fits the mould. In fact, Ladbrokes were so certain he was going to get it, they stopped accepting bets on him earlier in March. "A surge of punters have backed Marshall so we’ve had no choice but to close the book," Ladbrokes' Alex Donohue told the Daily Mail. "If he does get the gig, the bookies will be exterminated first."

Kris Marshall, of 'Love Actually', 'My Family' and 'BT advert' fame

However, according to Betway, “Phoebe Waller-Bridge is all the rage with the punters at the moment”.

“Her odds of being the next Doctor Who have collapsed from 20/1 to 2/1 since Monday morning and we’re on red alert, keeping an eye out for any more telling bets. Kris Marshall remains solid at 2/1, but the sudden rush of support for Waller-Bridge suggests the race to become TV’s next Time Lord is swinging in her favour.”

Other relatively favoured candidates for the role include David Harewood, a black Brummie currently starring in Supergirl in the US, Tilda Swinton, who is surely too huge a movie star these days, and Olivia Colman, who has appeared in the show before but not as the Doctor. Big bets aren’t totally reliable indicators that a casting decision has been made, either, so don’t go putting the farm on it just yet.

That said, Waller-Bridge might be about to hit the bigtime herself; she’s been cast in the upcoming Star Wars film about Han Solo’s youth, though we haven’t been told who she’s playing or how big the role is.